Another eventful day - cold but summer is just around the corner

It was somewhat of a long day today. In addition to the ultrasound appointment we also went to get blood work done. My wife also had a dentist appointment. Summer is just around the corner. I added that so the title makes a little more sense. Time is passing by very quickly though.

So originally I thought that I would like to be surprised about baby's sex. I often miscommunicate so we ended up not stopping the technician from telling us. So we found out after all. Except for a select few I think we'll keep it a surprise for now. There is a reason for the miscommunication though. I said that it would be nice to know the sex so that we can plan some things in advance. I mentioned before that we could pick colour schemes even though it's not that big of a deal. As first time parents, one thing that benefits from having extra time is choosing a name. I touched on this before too. Choosing the name now means that the name of the wrong sex won't be disappointed.

The ultrasound technician says things look good. We tried to get a new picture but baby was moving around a lot. My wife said she saw the baby punching on the screen. That's definitely her baby! (Aside from the fact that it's growing inside her, of course). We tried to get baby to pose for us but didn't really work out, so we got a blurry picture. It's nice to know that baby is nice and active. I'm already imagining all the games that we'll play together.

Lists, baby things, planning. Even the title is a list.

The next ultrasound is booked. We'll see the baby again but we have tentatively decided that we want to be surprised on the big day. I'll be looking at the screen during the visit so I hope it's not so obvious that I ruin the surprise.

In other news more and more people are getting excited about the little one. My wife's colleagues are battling over hosting the baby shower. I guess it's a nice problem to have so I don't have to plan everything. It's about 3 months out so there's plenty of time but I've started making a list of things we need to get.

I've found that there are a lot of good resources for baby stuff. My friend recently used babylist for their registry. It makes saving items easy and lets visitors claim an item they want to gift us. I guess that's just like any other registry. It also has sample lists to make my job easier.

I've been bad and not posting my thoughts in a timely manner. If you were following along you'll notice that the last few posts are backdated. I'll try to keep posts updated. If it makes things better these are actually written on the date I posted.

Excitement is in the air

Exciting times! Family has been sick this past week so there was a lot of miserable to pass around. My wife was the most miserable of course, unable to take any drugs. They aren't that effective but it helps to at least relieve the symptoms. A highlight from this (at this point anything is a highlight) is that she said she felt the baby kicking. Except that it wasn't really a kick but more of a stretch. You know the kind you take when you've been riding in an egg for 4.5 months.

That's right almost 5 months. On the doctor's appointment coming up we'll find out the baby's sex. Some people don't want to know but both of us want to know just so we can plan a little better. I'm not a huge fan of gender specific colour schemes but my wife says that neutral schemes are hard to come by these days.

I think that aside from the colour of clothes most other things are fairly neutral. It's not like we're buying high heels that need to work for both boys and girls. Instead of gender specific clothing we could opt for various cute designs, such as giraffe, elephant, panda. Mom already bought a Cars robe - she thought it was a cute gi, the martial arts robe.

People have started guessing our baby's gender. So far there are two votes for each. I didn't officially make my guess but I have the feeling we have a girl.

Oh The Places You'll Go!

I've been thinking about baby things for a while now and I am still amazed at the huge market for baby things out there. Without internet we would be making decisions without the opportunity to gather effective feedback on items.

My next step is to budget for the baby things. Up to now all I've been doing is research on what is needed and what is too ridiculous to need. As with many things in life a budget is useful when you expect to be spending a lot of money.

This journey has been full of surprises so far. A couple of posts ago I touched on the market of previously stinky cloth diapers. I suppose I should not be surprised that a car seat costs less than a stroller given the way things have been going. To put it in another perspective anyone would expect a back support to cost less than any car.

Of course there are different levels of car seat and stroller, and combinations of both. One discussion that I just had with my wife is whether we want to get the "travel system" or dedicated stroller and seat. I can get into the pros and cons.

Dedicated
Going the dedicated route increases the child's safety. Think about it - the travel system's main feature is quick release. You only want it quick releasing when you want it to. As a car seat it's another point of failure. A dedicated seat does one thing very well.

A dedicated stroller is probably less of a difference. Most travel systems that I've seen so far can accommodate growing kids. As far as I can tell all kids grow so this is good.

The main down side to going dedicated is that things cost more. A dedicated seat and stroller should run about $400 each. I might argue that the stroller can be skipped, until I am the one carrying the wobbly bundle all day. However we would most likely drive out so we could get away with a carrier.

A second major downside is the bundle needs to be transferred from car to stroller or other carrying case. Research shows that bundles awaken when they're moved. I've played enough RPGs to know that's bad news.

Travel system
Generally the cons above are the pros here. It's much easier to move baby around out of the car, especially when they're asleep. The price is usually comparable to other strollers so you could save about $500. However the bucket doesn't look like it fits anything bigger than a tiny baby. If that's the case you end up spending on a car seat anyway. I think in the past car seats weren't as flexible and convertible so it only fit the bigger kids.

Verdict
Not sure yet. We only have one car so we don't need the convenience of a cheaper second base for a bucket. We are also going to be in the middle of summer so there's no worry about the cold weather just yet. I think we're leaning more towards the dedicated route. Either way we have access to very good brands, many reviews, and many options to choose from.